The Stray Whisker leverages built-in SEO to drive 364% revenue growth

How one Australian shaving company quickly scaled their brand using powerful marketing features.

364%

457%

390%

increase in revenue

increase in units sold

increase in total orders

The Stray Whisker success story

When Con Kazantzidis’ shaving product review YouTube channel “Shave the Man” hit more than 6,000 subscribers, it became clear he had found a niche segment ripe for education and community.

Soon after, he launched a private Facebook group and worked continuously to provide fans access to him and others - to share advice, products and ultimately build a shaving community unparalleled online.

The only part missing was the ability to buy the high-rated products mentioned by so many.

Unwilling to compromise the community for commercial means, he launched a new website and social media channels for his new brand: The Stray Whisker.

Today, Shave the Man and The Stray Whisker may overlap, but the ecommerce store is pulling in more than just his previous community. Today, consumers across the globe find niche shaving products offered through Con’s Australia-based store. And, thanks to BigCommerce’s out-of-the-box customer review system and SEO performance, the webstore is becoming a brand new community all its own.

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The Stray Whisker success story

When Con Kazantzidis’ shaving product review YouTube channel “Shave the Man” hit more than 6,000 subscribers, it became clear he had found a niche segment ripe for education and community.

Soon after, he launched a private Facebook group and worked continuously to provide fans access to him and others - to share advice, products and ultimately build a shaving community unparalleled online.

The only part missing was the ability to buy the high-rated products mentioned by so many.

Unwilling to compromise the community for commercial means, he launched a new website and social media channels for his new brand: The Stray Whisker.

Today, Shave the Man and The Stray Whisker may overlap, but the ecommerce store is pulling in more than just his previous community. Today, consumers across the globe find niche shaving products offered through Con’s Australia-based store. And, thanks to BigCommerce’s out-of-the-box customer review system and SEO performance, the webstore is becoming a brand new community all its own.

We looked at numerous reviews online comparing the best platforms and chose BigCommerce because of the balance between cost and feature set out-of-the-box.
Con Kazantzidis, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

BigCommerce is the platform of choice for SEO professionals

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

We looked at a numerous reviews online comparing the best platforms and chose BigCommerce because of the balance between cost and feature set out-of-the-box.

Additionally, BigCommerce was founded by Australians, so there’s a connection there.

There was one other factor as well.

Prior to working in ecommerce, I was a high school science teacher. A former student started his own business in SEO. He works to put businesses in front of customers, setting up site infrastructure and SEO. I asked him, “What would you suggest is the best ecommerce platform for us to go on?”

Without any hesitation, he said BigCommerce.

Search Engine Optimized out-of-the-box

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

We wanted to get our SEO down before we ever considered doing paid advertising. We wanted to explore the organic options first, and that's just been incredible. We haven’t done any paid advertising at all so far. All of our traffic has been organic.

We’ve optimized our site for brand searches. By spending time on the back end, we are increasingly high up on search engine results for the products we carry.

Site design best practices without the cost

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

We haven’t modified the design of our site since we launched. We used a basic theme that was on offer by BigCommerce –– and then customized elements here and there. It's fresh and easy to navigate.

We did just update to the new checkout flow BigCommerce offered, which is super sleek and nice. It works really well, and we didn’t have to do any of the work there. That is another great thing about BigCommerce: little to no development work if we don’t want to.

For our customers, they get to the checkout, press one button and they are done. Finished. End of story. It’s a very seamless experience for them, too.
Con Kazantzidis, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

We did just update to the new checkout flow BigCommerce offered, which is super sleek and nice. It works really well, and we didn’t have to do any of the work there. That is another great thing about BigCommerce: little to no development work if we don’t want to.
Con Kazantzidis, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

Analytics that power your business decisions

The analytics within BigCommerce are really helpful. It's so good to be able to compare month-to-month, week-to-week, and to see the conversions over time.

We had one company reach out to us and say, “We can get you a very, very decent conversion rate for your industry, something at about 2.3%.” I told them, “That’s great. We’re already getting 4.6%.” There was silence. They didn't know what to say.

It was BigCommerce’s analytics that enabled us to put up a counter argument. BigCommerce had all the statistics laid out right there in front of us. We were able to quote them minute by minute in real time, what our conversion rate was this day for last week, last month and last year.

One-click, internationally-trusted payments

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

We use PayPal and Stripe online, and they work really well. They were easy to install and are great for our overseas customers as well. On the ground, we use Square because it works smoothly with our inventory. The whole process of getting it setup in the BigCommerce backend was simple.

For our customers, they get to the checkout, press one button and they are done. Finished. End of story. It’s a very seamless experience for them, too.

Built-in product review feature drives sales

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

We switched on the native product review feature from day one on BigCommerce. It’s the best way for customers to feel they’re getting an honest opinion, and we’ve found that once reviewed, products sell faster. It’s the breadth of responses that make it work so well.

We’ve set it up so that an email prompt is sent out to clients a couple of weeks after their order has been shipped, and a lot of them respond with thoughtful and interesting reviews. Our customers are really happy to talk about their experiences and add to the narrative. And BigCommerce makes it easy to provide that feature for our customers.

It all starts with a passion for quality

As told to BigCommerce by Con Kazantzidis aka “Shave the Man”, Founder of The Stray Whisker.

Our YouTube and Facebook experiences made us realize there was actually room in the market here –– and customer demand. There would be no point us duplicating what other online businesses offered, instead we could start an online store which actually expanded the men's (and women’s) grooming product lines available in Australia, and added to the experience.

Our point of difference is that we have products others don't have and that we are introducing people to products so good, we stand behind them. That means we need to be able to research and market well, and focus on increasing engagement with our customers.

BigCommerce takes care of everything else –– and provides the tools we need to get the results we want.

With a 4% plus conversion rate and strong built-in SEO, we are very happy with our choice of BigCommerce.

With a 4% plus conversion rate and strong built-in SEO, we are very happy with our choice of BigCommerce.
Con Kazantzidis, Founder of The Stray Whisker.